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Job 21:1-34 — Job's Reply to Zophar

Job.21.1-34

¹Then Job answered and said: ²Listen carefully to my words, and let this be your consolation. ³Bear with me, and I will speak; then after I have spoken, you may mock. ⁴As for me, is my complaint against a man? Why then should I not be impatient? ⁵Look at me and be appalled, and put your hand over your mouth. ⁶When I remember, I am terrified, and trembling seizes my flesh. ⁷Why do the wicked live on, grow old, and even become mighty in power? ⁸Their offspring are established with them in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes. ⁹Their houses are safe, free from fear, and the rod of God is not upon them. ¹⁰Their bull breeds and does not fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry. ¹¹They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. ¹²They sing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoice at the sound of the flute. ¹³They spend their days in prosperity, and in a moment they go down to Sheol. ¹⁴Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of your ways.’ ¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what would we gain if we pray to him? ¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their own hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me. ¹⁷How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their disaster come upon them? How often does he apportion sorrows in his anger? ¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff that the storm carries away? ¹⁹You say, ‘God stores up a man's punishment for his children.’ Let him repay the man himself, so that he may know it. ²⁰Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. ²¹For what does he care for his household after him, when the number of his months is cut off? ²²Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since he judges those on high? ²³One dies in the fullness of his vigor, wholly at ease and secure. ²⁴His pails are full of milk , and the marrow of his bones is well watered. ²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted prosperity. ²⁶Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them. ²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts and the schemes with which you would wrong me. ²⁸For you say, ‘Where is the house of the nobleman, and where is the tent where the wicked dwell?’ ²⁹Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not recognize their testimony? ³⁰For the evil man is spared on the day of calamity ; he is led away on the day of wrath. ³¹Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done? ³²Yet he is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb. ³³The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all humanity follows after him, and those before him were without number. ³⁴So how can you comfort me with emptiness? In your replies there remains nothing but falsehood.

Translation Notes

4/11/2026

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